OMENS, CHARMS, AND DIVINATION.
Many books have been published, having a tendency to deceive the
credulous, who suffer themselves to be guided by any thing but reason
and experience. Hence the encouragement bestowed on works of
enchantment, dreams, omens, and fate. Mankind have always discovered a
propensity to peep behind the veil of futurity, and have been lavish of
money in consulting persons and books that make a pretension of
unravelling the decrees of Fate, which lie hidden in the labyrinths of
darkness. From these sources have arisen the following superstitions,
as a sample of the many that have disturbed the peace of individuals,
families, and sometimes of whole communities.
"A coal in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire to any
particular person, denotes his death is not far off. A collection of
tallow rising up against the wick of a candle is called a
winding-sheet, and deemed an omen of mortality. If, in eating, you miss
your mouth, and the food falls, it is very unlucky, and denotes
sickness. To dream you are dressed in black is an unlucky omen. Some
quarrel is about to happen between you and a friend or relative.
Sickness is about to attend your family. Death will deprive you of some
friend or relation. Lawsuits will perplex and harass you. If you
undertake a journey, it will be unsuccessful. If you are in love, it
denotes that your sweetheart is very unhappy, and that sickness will
attend her. If you are a farmer, your crops will fail, the murrain will
attack your cattle, and some dreadful accident will happen by the
overturning of one of your wagons. If you are in business, some one
will arrest you, and you will have great difficulty in settling the
matter. To dream of hen and chickens is the forerunner of ill luck.
Your sweetheart will betray you and marry another. If you go to law,
the case will be decided against you. If you go to sea, you will lose
your goods, and narrowly escape shipwreck. To dream of coals denotes
much affliction and trouble. If you are in love, your sweetheart will
prove false, and do every thing to injure you. To dream you see the
coals extinguished, and reduced to cinders, denotes the death of
yourself, or some near friend or relation. It also indicates great
losses, and forewarns you of beggary and a prison. To dream you are
married is ominous of death. It also denotes poverty, a prison, and
misfortunes. To dream of lying with your newly-married husband or wife
denotes danger and sudden misfortunes."
_Popular charms_ are equally absurd and nonsensical. For example, a
ring made of the hinge of a coffin is good for the cramp. A halter with
which a man has been hanged, if tied about the head, will cure the
headache. A drop of blood of a black cat cures convulsions in children.
If a tree of any kind be split, and weak, rickety, or ruptured children
are drawn through it, and afterwards the tree is bound together, so as
to make it unite--as the tree heals and grows together, so will the
child acquire strength. If in a family the youngest daughter be married
before her older sisters, they must all dance at her wedding without
shoes, to counteract their ill luck, and procure themselves husbands.
And to procure luck when a person goes out to transact business, you
must throw an old shoe after him. To spit on the first money received
for the price of goods sold on any day will procure luck. And that
boxers must spit in their hands before they set to, for luck's sake.
Seamen have a superstition that if they whistle in a storm, the storm
will be increased. And in time of a calm, they practise whistling to
_call the wind_, as they term it. Among farmers, in setting a hen, it
is deemed lucky to use an odd number of eggs. Among soldiers, salutes
with cannon must be of an odd number. A royal salute is thrice seven,
or twenty-one guns. Healths are drank odd. Yet the number _thirteen_ is
sometimes deemed ominous; it being supposed that when thirteen persons
meet in a room, one of them will die within the year. To know whether a
woman shall have the man she desires, it is directed to get two lemon
peels, and wear them all day, one in each pocket, and at night rub the
four posts of the bedstead with them. If she is to succeed, the person
will appear to her in her sleep, and present her with a couple of
lemons. If not, there is no room for hope. And again the fair ones are
directed to take a piece of wedding cake, draw it thrice through the
wedding ring, lay it under their pillow, and they will certainly dream
of their future husbands. A thousand other equally successful methods
have been proposed to solve the mysteries of future fortune; and yet
the magical stone, that will turn all our schemes into wished-for
realities, remains to be discovered. As time advances, and knowledge
pervades the abodes of darkness and ignorance, all this trumpery of
ghosts, witches, fairies, tricks, and omens will go down to the "tomb
of the Capulets." People will be able to pass through the churchyard,
sleep in an old house, though the wind whistle ever so shrill, without
encountering any supernatural visitations. They will become wise enough
to trace private and public calamities to other causes than the
crossing of knives, the click of an insect, or even the portentous
advent of a comet. Thanks to the illustrious names recorded in the
annals of science and letters, who have contributed towards so happy a
consummation.